RehabMeasures Instrument
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  2. My Vocational Situation

My Vocational Situation

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Purpose

The My Vocational Situation scale is designed to assess for difficulties related to vocational decision-making. It is frequently used in career planning for identifying individuals who have unclear vocational goals and require additional information and guidance to make career decisions.

The Vocational Identity Scale of MVS aims to measure "the possession of a clear and stable picture of one's goals, interests, personality and talents. This characteristic leads to relatively untroubled decision making and confidence in one's ability to make good decisions" (Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980, p 1).

  • The Vocational identity scale measures the extent to which a person possesses a clear and stable picture of goals, interests, personality, and talents (Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980).
  • The Occupational Information scale assesses the need for vocational information (Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980).
  • The Barriers Scale examines perceived external obstacles or limitations when pursuing occupational goals (Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980).

Link to Instrument

Instrument Details

Acronym MVS

Area of Assessment

Insight
Life Participation
Personality
Self-efficacy

Assessment Type

Patient Reported Outcomes

Administration Mode

Paper & Pencil

Cost

Free

Diagnosis/Conditions

  • Brain Injury Recovery
  • Spinal Cord Injury

Populations

Mixed Populations
Non-Specific Patient Population
Spinal Injuries

Key Descriptions

  • The MVS is designed to identify and assess three facets of vocational decision-making:
    1) Vocational Identity
    2) Occupational Information
    3) Barriers that the respondent perceives as limitations to pursuing various occupational goals and objectives
  • The MVS is comprised of 18 true/false items (Vocational Identity scale), and 8 yes/no items (Occupational Information and Barriers scales).
  • The number of responses marked "false" is added to obtain the total Vocational Identity score, with higher scores indicating stronger vocational identitiy.
  • The Occuptional Information and barriers total scores are calculated by adding the total number of "no" responses provided.
  • “Low scores on the Vocational Identity scale indicate confusion about a respondent’s identity and a lack of self-satisfaction” (Tinsley, Bowman, & York, 1989, p. 116).
  • “Low scores on...[occupational information and barriers scales]…indicate significant obstacles to career choice” (Tinsley, Bowman, & York, 1989, p. 116).

Number of Items

26

Equipment Required

  • Pen/Pencil

Time to Administer

5-10 minutes

Required Training

No Training

Age Ranges

Adolescent

13 - 17

years

Adult

18 - 64

years

Instrument Reviewers

Initial review completed byTimothy P. Janikowski, PhD and his University at Buffalo Rehabilitation Counseling Master’s students, Alexandra Miliotto (Master Degree Student), Brett Petersen (Master Degree Student), and Samantha Robbins (Master Degree Student) at the University at Buffalo, SUNY (2014). Review and revisions completed by Kristian Nitsch, MS (2/25/2015), Ana Garcia (Occupational Therapy Student), Kimberly J. The (Occupational Therapy Student), Molly Ansel Hoisington (Occupational Therapy Student) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (4/24/15).

ICF Domain

Participation

Measurement Domain

Emotion

Considerations

Our recommendations for future studies with My Vocational Situation are to use more groups with disabilities. Future studies could focus on other psychometric properties such as, validity measures, and reliability measures. Future researchers would benefit from comparing My Vocational Situation to other measurements of career decision making. More current research is also needed, our findings were 10 years old or more. 

The Vocational Identity scale measures levels of Clarity, Certainty, Decision-making obstacles, and Informational deficits. (Tinsley, Bowman, & York, 1989). 

MVS may not have face validity for some adult women, particularly women 55 years and older (Olson, Johnston & Kunce, 1985).

Do you see an error or have a suggestion for this instrument summary? Please e-mail us!

Non-Specific Patient Population

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Standard Error of Measurement (SEM)

High School Student with Learning Disabilities(Dipelou, Hargrave, Sniatecki, & Donaldson, 2012; n= 139) 

  • SEM= 1.9 (calculated) 

 

High School Students without Learning Disabilities(Dipelou, Hargrave, Sniatecki, & Donaldson, 2012; n= 486) 

  • SEM= 1.7 (calculated) 

 

Individuals with Cognitive Impairment(Yanchak, Lease, & Strauser, 2005; n= 46) 

  • SEM= 1.69 (calculated) 

 

Individuals with Physical Impairments(Yanchak, Lease, & Strauser, 2005; n= 44) 

  • SEM= 1.95 (calculated)

Normative Data

High School Students (Holland, Gottfredson, & Power, 1980) 

Male High School Students (n= 185) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 11.20, SD= 5.46 
  • Occupational Information: Mean= 3.65, SD= 1.17
  • Barriers: Mean= 2.03, SD= 1.21 

 

Female High School Students (n= 311)

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 11.27, SD= 5.39
  • Occupational Information: Mean= 3.67, SD= 1.10
  • Barriers: Mean= 1.82, SD= 1.13 

 

College Students (Holland, Gottfredson, & Power, 1980) 

Male College Students (n= 132) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 15.86, SD= 5.20
  • Occupational Information: Mean= 2.39, SD= 1.52
  • Barriers: Mean= 3.35, SD= .83 

 

Female College Students (n= 134)

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 14.34, SD= 5.34
  • Occupational Information: Mean= 1.77, SD= 1.42
  • Barriers: Mean= 3.37, SD= .94 

 

Full-Time Workers (Holland, Gottfredson, & Power, 1980) 

Male Full-Time Workers (n= 14) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 17.03, SD= 5.51
  • Occupational Information: Mean= 2.87, SD= 1.35
  • Barriers: Mean= 3.37, SD= .90 

 

Female Full-Time Workers (n= 143)

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 15.34, SD= 5.26
  • Occupational Information: Mean= 2.24, SD= 1.51
  • Barriers: Mean= 3.10, SD= 1.1 

 

Graduate Students and Faculty (Holland, Gottfredson, & Power, 1980) 

Male Graduate Students and Faculty (n= 138) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 19.13, SD= 2.42
  • Occupational Information: Mean= 2.80, SD= 1.21
  • Barriers: Mean= 3.36, SD= .93 

 

Female Graduate Students and Faculty (n= 14)

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 17.71, SD= 2.76
  • Occupational Information: Mean= 2.36, SD= 1.28
  • Barriers: Mean= 3.57, SD= .85 

 

High School Students with & without Learning Disabilities (Dipelou, Hargrave, Sniatecki, & Donaldson, 2012) 

With Learning Disabilities Group (n=139) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 9.6, SD= 3.57 

 

Without Learning Disabilities Group (n= 486) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 9.4, SD= 4.5 

 

High School Students in & not in Special Education Classes (Roessler, 1996) 

Special Education Classes (n= 14) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 8.93, SD = 3.12 
  • Occupational Information: Mean= .86, SD = 1.02 
  • Barriers: Mean= 2.57, SD = 2.57 

 

No Special Education Classes (n= 26) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 8.92, SD = 3.57 
  • Occupational Information: Mean= .88, SD = 1.24 
  • Barriers: Mean= 3.34, SD = .74 

 

Males & Females Across the Educational Span (Westbrook, 1985) 

High School Girls (n= 311)

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 9.19, SD= N/A 
  • Occupational Information: Mean= 3.67, SD= N/A
  • Barriers: Mean= 1.82, SD= N/A 

 

Female College Students (n= 134) 

  • Occupational Information: Mean= 1.77, SD= N/A 

 

Female Graduate Students & Faculty (n= 14) 

  • Barriers: Mean= 3.57, SD= N/A 

 

Male Graduate Students & Faculty (n= 15) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 13.93, SD= N/A 

 

Individuals with Multiple Disabilities(Merz & Szymanski, 1997) 

Workshop Group (n= 9) 

  • Vocational Identity (Pre-Test): Mean= 3.44, SD= 2.51 
  • Vocational Identity (Post-Test): Mean= 8.78, SD= 4.27 

Control Group (n= 5) 

  • Vocational Identity (Pre-Test): Mean= 4.00, SD= 2.83 
  • Vocational Identity (Post-Test): Mean= 6.20, SD= 3.83

 

South African First Year University Students(Nicholas & Pretorius, 1994) 

Men (n= 659) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 10.15, SD= 3.89 

Women (n= 805) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 10.38, SD= 3.67 

 

Individuals Entering Community College (Healy, 1990) 

Women (n= 384; Mean age= 28.62, SD= 9.65) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 10.20, SD= N/A 
  • Occupational Information: Mean= 1.50, SD= N/A 
  • Barriers: Mean= 2.95, SD= N/A 

Men (n = 278; mean age = 27.68, SD = 9.01) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 10.81, SD= N/A 
  • Occupational Information: Mean= 1.61, SD= N/A 
  • Barriers: Mean= 2.07, SD= N/A 

 

Accepted Freshman at a large Midwestern University(Mauer & Gysbers, 1990) 

 

1985 Sample (n = 2,469) 

  • Occupational Information: Mean= .76, SD= .75 

1987 Sample (n = 1,909) 

  • Occupational Information: Mean= .73, SD= .76 

 

Full-Time Auto Workers Facing a Plant Closing (Mosley-Howard & Andersen, 1993) 

Men

  • Vocational Identity (n=128): Mean= 12.28, SD= 4.28 
  • Occupational Information(n= 138): Mean= 2.86, SD= 1.35 
  • Barriers(n= 138): Mean= 3.37, SD= .90 

 

Women

  • Vocational Identity(n= 131): Mean= 11.08, SD= 4.12 
  • Occupational Information(n= 143): Mean= 2.24, SD= 1.51 
  • Barriers (n= 143): Mean= 3.10, SD= 1.18 

 

Job Loss Group

  • Vocational Identity (n= 148): Mean= 8.04, SD= 6.65 
  • Occupational Information (n= 170): Mean= 1.22, SD= 1.50 
  • Barriers (n= 169): Mean= 2.39, SD= 1.52 

 

Undergraduate Students (Toporek & Pope-Davis, 2001) 

African American Students (n = 201) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 8.41, SD= 4.40 

 

White Students

  • Vocational Identity Group 1 (n= 276): Mean= 6.98, SD= 4.20 
  • Vocational identity Group 2 (n= 277): Mean= 6.98, SD= 3.97 

 

12th Grade Class at a Vocational High School (Conneran & Hartman, 1993) 

“Non-chronically Career Undecided” 

  • Vocational Identity (Males, n= 49): Mean= 14.14, SD= 3.38 
  • Vocational Identity (Females, n= 29): Mean= 12.00, SD= 3.11 

 

“Chronically Career Undecided” 

  • Vocational Identity (Males, n= 22): Mean= 7.59, SD= 3.70 
  • Vocational Identity (Females, n= 12): Mean= 6.92, SD= 3.23 

 

Homemakers and displaced homemakers: (Olson, Johnston & Kunce, 1985) (n=358; mean age=45.3; mean years of education=13.4) 

Homemakers

  • Vocational Identity: Mean=12.8; SD=4.3
  • Occupational Information: Mean=2.7; SD=1.6
  • Barriers: Mean=3.3; SD=1.9 

 

Displaced Homemakers

  • Vocational Identity: Mean=7.8; SD=4.2
  • Occupational Information: Mean=0.7; SD=0.9
  • Barriers: Mean=2.4; SD=1.1

Test/Retest Reliability

College Students

(Lucas, Gysbers, Beuscher, & Heppner, 1988; n= 2,532) 

  • Vocational Identity: Adequate (r= .64) over 3-5 month period 
  • Occupation Information: Poor (r= .14) over 3-5 month period 
  • Barriers: Poor (r= .36) over 3-5 month period 

 

Test-Retest for Vocational Identity

  • Men (n=74): Excellent (r = .84) over 14 days (Asama, 1992) 
  • Women (n=161): Excellent (r = .93) over 14 days (Asama, 1992) 
  • Men & Women: Excellent (r~ 0.75) Over 1-3 months (Holland, 1993) 

 

Navy Recruits (Holland, Johnston, & Asama, 1993) 

(Holland, Gottfredson, & Baker, 1990; n = 717, male: n = 467, female: n = 250) 

  • Excellent test –retest reliability (ICC=.75)
  • Adequate test-retest reliability (male: r = .63, female: r = .70)

Internal Consistency

High School Students & College Students & Workers (Holland, Gottfredson, & Power, 1980) 

Male High School Students

  • Vocational Identity: Excellent (KR-20 = .86) 
  • Occupational Information: Poor (KR-20 = .39)
  • Barriers: Poor (KR-20 = .23) 

 

Female High School Students

  • Vocational Identity: Excellent (KR-20 = .86) 
  • Occupational Information: Poor (KR-20 = .44) 
  • Barriers: Poor (KR-20 = .23) 

 

Male College Students and Workers

  • Vocational Identity: Excellent (KR-20 = .89)
  • Occupational Information: Adequate (KR-20 = .79)
  • Barriers: Poor (KR-20 = .45) 

 

Female College Students and Workers

  • Vocational Identity: Excellent (KR-20 = .88)
  • Occupational Information: Adequate (KR-20 = .77)
  • Barriers: Poor (KR-20 = .65) 

 

High School Student with Learning Disabilities(Dipelou, Hargrave, Sniatecki, & Donaldson, 2012) 

  • Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .82) 

 

 

High School and College Students (Westbrook, 1985) 

  • Vocational Identity: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .86-.89)
  • Occupational Information: Poor/Adequate (Cronbach’s Alpha= .39-.79)
  • Barriers: Poor (Cronbach’s Alpha= .23 -.65)

 

Individuals with Multiple Disabilities (Merz & Szymanski, 1997) 

  • Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .90)* 

* Scores higher than .9 may indicate redundancy in the scale questions. 

 

South African First Year University Students (Nicholas & Pretorius, 1994) 

  • Men: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .80) 
  • Women: Adequate (Cronbach’s Alpha= .78) 

 

Accepted Freshman at a large Midwestern University (Mauer & Gysbers, 1990) 

  • Vocational identity: Adequate (Cronbach’s Alpha= .78) 

 

African-American & White American Undergraduate (Toporek & Pope-Davis, 2001) 

African American Students

  • Excellent (KR-20= .84) 

 

White American Students

  • Group One: Excellent (KR-20= .82) 
  • Group Two: Adequate (KR-20= .78)

Criterion Validity (Predictive/Concurrent)

Employed Adults: (Carson & Mowsesian, 1993)

  • Vocational Identity Scores demonstrated adequate correlations (r=.45) with job satisfaction among 130 employed adults. 

 

My Vocational Situation – Identity Scale(Holland, 1993) 

  • “Low identity is useful predictor of attrition from the university for black males,” (Holland, 1993) from Maryland Longitudinal Study (1990). 
  • Holland et al., 1993, wrote “In small sample of farmers, Vocational Identity is ‘useful predictor of how well some farmers are coping with a major career transition,”’ referring to the study by Heppner, Cook, Strozier, & Heppner (1991)

Construct Validity

University Students Undecided about Vocational Plans (Johnson, Smither, & Holland, 1981) 

Informal career seminar ratings from a career guidance intervention had excellent correlations with the Vocational Identity results. 

  • rs ranging from .11 - .82, Median r = .60 

 

South African First Year University Students(Nicholas & Pretorius, 1994) 

  • Limited. “Construct validity of the Vocational Identity scale was examined through the analysis of the relation of vocational identity to home language, faculty, and frequency of guidance received at school, and guidance experiences at school”. 

 

My Vocational Situation – Identity Scale

  • Medical Career Development Inventory: Adequate (r=.40, p<.001)(Savickas, 1985)
  • Career Decision Scale (Muchinsky, 1985) 
    • (Men; n= 94-103): Excellent (r= .67, p<.001)
    • Women; n= 93-96): Excellent (r= .63, p<.001) 
  • Career Decision Scale (Fretz & Leong, 1982)
    • (Men; n= 48): Excellent (r= -.65, p<.001) 
    • (Women; n= 64): Excellent (r= -.67, p<.001)
  • Career Maturity Making Scale – Attitude Scale: Excellent (r= -.69, p< .01) (Leong & Morris, 1989)
  • Career Decision Making Styles – Dependent Style: Excellent (r= -.60, p<.05) (Leong & Morris, 1989) 

 

Population Not Specified (Holland, Johnston, & Asama, 1993) 

The Vocational Identity Scale appears to have Excellent construct validity; its correlates and ability to differentiate defined groups from a consistent set if data. Numerical Value not reported.

Content Validity

Auto Workers Facing a Plant Closing (Mosley-Howard & Andersen, 1993) 

The authors reported that displaced workers had mean scores below Holland’s (1980) normative sample on all 3 scales.

 

Homemakers and displaced homemakers (Olson, Johnston & Kunce, 1985) 

The validity of the instrument was generally supported. Numerical value not reported.

Face Validity

The use of self-report and true/false items is common for measures of vocational interest and personality assessment.

Spinal Injuries

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Normative Data

Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury(Crisp, 1992; n = 90) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 12.1, SD= N/A 
  • Occupational Information: Mean= 2.5, SD= N/A 
  • Barriers: Mean= 3.2, SD= N/A 

Internal Consistency

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)(Crisp, 1992) 

  • Vocational Identity: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha= .83)
  • Occupational Information: Poor (Cronbach’s Alpha= .64)
  • Barriers: Poor (Cronbach’s Alpha= .34)

Mixed Populations

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Normative Data

Individuals with Cognitive & Physical Impairments (Yanchak, 2005) 

Cognitive Impairments (n= 46) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 9.11, SD= 3.98 

 

Physical Impairments (n= 44) 

  • Vocational Identity: Mean= 9.64, SD= 4.60 

Internal Consistency

Cognitive & Physical Impairments(Yanchak, Lease, & Strauser, 2005) 

  • Vocational Identity: Excellent (Cronbach’s Alpha .82) 

Bibliography

Carson, A.D. & Mowsesian, R. (1993). Moderators of the prediction of job satisfaction from congruence: A test of Holland’s theory. Journal of Career Assessment, 2, 130-144. 

Conneran, M., & Hartman, B.W. (1993). The concurrent validity of the self directed search in identifying chronic career indecision among vocational education students. Journal of Career Development, 19(3), 197-208. 

Crisp, R. (1992). Vocational decision making by sixty spinal cord injury patients. Paraplegia, 30(6), 420-424. 

Dipeolu, A.O, Hargrave, S., Sniatecki, J.L., & Donaldson, J. (2012). Improving Prediction of Significant Career‐Related Constructs for High School Students With Learning Disabilities. The Career Development Quarterly, 60(3), 207-220. 

Fretz, B.R., & Leong, F.T. (1982). Career development status as a predictor of career intervention outcomes. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 29(4), 388. 

Healy, Charles C, Tullier, Michelle, & Mourton, Don M. (1990). My Vocational Situation: Its relation to concurrent career and future academic benchmarks. Measurement and evaluation in counseling and development, 23(3), 100-107. 

Holland, J.L., Daiger, D.C., & Power, P.G. (1980). My Vocational Situation. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. 

Holland, J.L., Gottfredson, D.C., & Power, P.G. (1980). Some diagnostic scales for research in decision making and personality: Identity, information, and barriers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 1191-1200. 

Holland, J.L., Johnston, J.A., & Asama, F. (1993). The Vocational Identity Scale: A diagnostic and treatment tool. Journal of Career Assessment, 1(1), 1-12. 

Johnson, J. A., Smither, R., & Holland, J. L. (1981). Evaluating vocational interventions: A tale of two career development seminars. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 28(2), 180-183. doi: 

Leong, F.T., & Morris, J. (1989). Assessing the construct validity of Holland, Daiger, and Power's measure of Vocational Identity. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 22(3), 117-125. 

Lucas, E.B. Gysbers, N.C., Buescher, K.L., & Heppner, P.P. (1988). My Vocational Situation: Normative, psychometric, and comparative data. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 21, 162-170. 

Mauer, Ellen B, & Gysbers, Norman C. (1990). Identifying career concerns of entering university freshmen using My Vocational Situation. The Career Development Quarterly, 39(2), 155-165. 

Merz, M.A., & Szymanski, E.M. (1997). Effects of a Vocational Rehabilitation-Based Career Workshop on Commitment to Career Choice. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 41(2), 88-104. 

Mosley-Howard, S., & Andersen, P. (1993). Using my vocational situation with workers facing a plant closing. Journal of Career Development, 19 (4), 289-300. 

Nicholas, L., & Pretorius, T.B. (1994). Assessing the vocational ability of Black South African university students: Psychometric and normative data on the Vocational Identity scale of the My Vocational Situation. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 27(2), 85-92. 

Olson, S. K., Johnston, J. A., & Kunce, J. (1985). Validity of my vocational situation for homemakers and displaced homemakers. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 18(1), 17-25. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/617049078?accountid=14552 

Rayman, J.R., & Bernard, C.B. (1987). Strong and weak vocational identities: A post mortem of a career course. (Research Report No. 14) University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University, Career Development and Placement Services. 

Savickas, M.L. (1985). Identity in vocational development. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 27(3), 329-337. 

Tinsley, H. E., Bowman, S. L., & York, D. C. (1989). Career Decision Scale, My Vocational Situation, Vocational Rating Scale, and Decisional Rating Scale: Do they measure the same constructs? Journal of Counseling Psychology, 36, 115–120. doi: 10.1037/0022-0167.36.1.115. 

Toporek, R.L., & Pope-Davis, D.B. (2001). Comparison of vocational identity factor structures among African American and White American college students. Journal of Career Assessment, 9(2), 135-151. 

Yanchak, K.V., Lease, S.H., & Strauser, D.R. (2005). Relation of disability type and career thoughts to vocational identity. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 48(3), 130-138.

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